IHRA WORLD FINALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK
KNOLL GAS TOP FUEL
BRUCE A BRIDESMAID NO MORE, DOUBLES UP – Bruce Litton has played the second fiddle role countless times in IHRA Top Fuel competition during the “Clay Millican Years.” Now that Clay is on the NHRA tour full time, T.J. Zizzo has been the new thorn in Litton’s side.
Litton isn’t concerned with all of that heading into this critical Sunday. “You’ve gotta take it round by round, no matter what happens with anybody out here,” the veteran Top Fuel driver said. “At the same time, you have to enjoy the moment and all the excitement that is going on right now.”
“T.J. has a great team over there,” Litton said. “They’ve done really, really well in their first season, but I hope it works out in our favor at their expense I guess. We’re going to go for it and see what happens later today.”
What happened was a loss by Zizzo and a victory by Litton in the first round, clinching Litton’s first championship after three runner-up and three third-place finishes in previous years. Litton also went low for the round with a 4.679.
The Indianapolis-based businessman then took out Kevin Jones with a 4.707 in the semis and Scotty Cannon with a 4.606 in the finals on his way to doubling up for both the championship and the win at the World Finals.
“This is awesome and humbling at the same time,” said Litton. “This is something we have been trying to do for years. The key to this season was my whole crew being able to stay together because we all work so well together.”
“I’ve finished second and third so many times, but getting hurt last year was worse than all that,” Litton said. “It was great for me to get back on the horse and know that I can still drive these cars.”
“I’ve just been blessed,” Litton said. “God has blessed me with peace no matter what happens. I told my crew that no matter what happens this weekend, Monday would still come. I call on my faith a lot, and through the help of Lucas Oil, Torco, United Trailers, and everyone that helps us out we were finally able to win this championship.”
KNOLL GAS NITRO FUNNY CAR
GILBERTSON FINALLY BREAKS THROUGH – Charlotte’s Bob Gilbertson actually voiced frustration Friday night after taking the provisional pole. He held on to that spot and finally broke through for his first win since Epping of ’06 and the first at his home track. Gilbertson got the win after a string of qualifying highs and eliminations lows.
“I moved back east in 1980, and drug an old heap here to try to race,” said Gilbertson. “Ever since then I thought it would be cool to win a race here, and I haven’t been able to do it until today. We’ve finally won one at the Rock. I just wish it was the beginning of the season instead of the end, but we will take it any way we can get it.”
Though Gilbertson went wire to wire for the win, it was far from perfect. “We actually blew our motor up in the second round and had to change engines,” said Gilbertson. “You’ve got to be really careful nowadays after all the things that have happened with the Force team. You just don’t want to screw up. We fought through a lot of little things today to get this win.”
“If I was my own crew chief I would be in the burn center every weekend,” Gilbertson said. “I’ve been on my crew chief Tommy Delago all day to get me a fast car, and he’s been on me to improve my reaction times. We are all under a lot of pressure because we’re under funded and only have so many parts, but he pulled it out.”
“It’s great to take the trophy to Charlotte. This is good for everybody.”
TORCO RACE FUELS PRO MODIFIED
CANNON JOINS FATHER AS PRO MOD WORLD CHAMP – Scott and Scotty Cannon have been setting father and son records all weekend, but the sweetest is Scott joining his father on the list of IHRA Pro Modified champions.
“It was tight, but we decided to come out here and race today because if we got past first round, it didn’t matter what Janis did,” said the younger Cannon. “Everything else after that really didn’t matter. I was probably the most nervous I have ever been before that run though.”
“I’ve heard a little bit of everything from my dad this year,” Cannon said. “But there was some advice mixed in there. I grew up racing with my dad, and I’m really just a crew guy that gets to drive the car. If I need any help he gives it to me, and he tells me when I mess up but I do the same to him. We really have a good relationship.”
“We wore out two calculators figuring out what we needed to do today about the points,” admitted Cannon. “We went out there with a safe setup and everything paid off.”
Cannon can thank the newly implemented Last Man Standing award for a big boost in his championship hopes. He drove the Torco Firebird to the top spot and a win 11 times throughout the season, totaling 55 extra points collected.
JANIS WINS, JUST MISSES 3rd CHAMPIONSHIP – Mike Janis’ decision to skip the long haul to Edmonton probably seemed like the best decision at the time, but it turned around and bit him today.
After capping a stellar second half of the season with a win at the Rock, Janis would have needed to just show up at Edmonton and collect the 41 bonus points for attending every race to clinch the championship. Instead, he found himself 22 points behind champion Scott Cannon when all was said and done
“I know it all comes down to that trip to Edmonton,” Janis said. “We had a good race today though. We had some clutch issues early on and dodged a bullet when the other guy shook first round, but all in all it turned out to be our day.”
“We’ll just take it as a great start to next year.”
HALSEY RESETS N20 RECORD – Less than 24 hours after Shannon Jenkins drove his Reher-Morrison-powered GTO to the quickest nitrous-assisted Pro Modified pass in IHRA history, Jim Halsey lowered it another .006 to a 6.071 in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. The difference: Halsey utilizes Gene Fulton horsepower, and has become the Spartanburg, SC-based engine builder’s flagship hot rod since Jenkins’ and Mike Castellana’s defection to the Reher-Morrison camp.
“That 6.0 run last night was something we have been trying to do for a long time,” Halsey said. “Normally we’re pretty upset when we lose a race, but we’re thrilled to leave here as the quickest nitrous car on the planet.”
The competition between the two engine builders has been intensifying throughout the season, culminating in the back and forth performance battle we saw this season. Will it continue in 2008? That depends on both teams’ plans for next season, which are up in the air right now. Castellana, who is in attendance this weekend as a spectator, has already sold his Jerry Haas-built ’07 Mustang overseas. Jenkins’ GTO is sold as well, and will be delivered now that the season is over. What the team is building and where they plan to run is a subject they have kept close to the vest.
Another interesting fact about the records is that they were both set in the heat of the day rather than in the mineshaft conditions the Rockingham night sessions usually provide.
STOKEN GOES TO SEMIS, FINISHES THIRD IN CHAMPIONSHIP – Pat Stoken flew the nitrous oxide banner high in Pro Modified this year, wrapping up a season of solid performances with a semifinal finish. While Janis and Cannon battled it out for the championship, Stoken came into the race and will leave it securely in third place.
This comes one year after zero nitrous cars were able to qualify for the fall Rockingham race, and the highest points finisher without a supercharger was Jim Halsey at seventh.
CANNON GOING FOR IT – Contrary to what we reported last night, Scott Cannon Jr. will be competing in eliminations today. Word floating through the tower and the pits last night was that Cannon was contemplating not running today to avoid the risk of losing points due to an oildown. That is the only remaining way Mike Janis could win the championship.
“We called up to the tower to figure out the points situation, and we decided to go for it today instead of sitting out,” said Cannon. “We never really were going to sit out, we just wanted to know what all our options were.”
ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR
THOMAS SCORES UNPRECEDENTED 7th CHAMPIONSHIP – Scotty Cannon has six in Pro Modified. Clay Millican has six in Top Fuel. But now, Mark Thomas tops them all with seven championships in Alcohol Funny Car.
“I knew coming into this deal we had a chance to do this, but I was trying not to think about it,” said Thomas. “Rob (Atchison) had to have slept a lot less than I did, and I tossed and turned all night last night. I’m thrilled with the way it turned out, everything except that final round!”
Atchison was sure to let Thomas know exactly where the point scenario stood before their final round match-up. “Rob came up to me and said ‘if I beat you, and you oil the track, we will be tied,’” Thomas said. “Then we will both have three wins and three runner-ups, but he beat me more times in head to head match-ups and he would win the championship on a tie-breaker. He had it all figured out. If I had just left the car in the pits we would have the championship won, but I wasn’t going to do that. When it got loose in the final, I know I should have quit earlier but the racer in me just wouldn’t let me do it.”
“This 8-car field has made this deal so tough out here,” Thomas said. “A 5.83 bump is really fast. I’m proud of the fact that we won a lot of these titles in the early ‘90s, then hit a dry spell, and have won three in the 2000s. I don’t know if that means I need to stick around a lot longer or what, but either way I just love drag racing and I’m thrilled to be out here doing it.”
ATCHISON WINS RACE, FALLS JUST SHORT OF 4TH TITLE – Rob Atchison told us Friday that he needed to get to Mark Thomas early. He got to him, but it wasn’t until the final round, not nearly early enough.
“This car has been running great in the back half of the season, and I felt that if we ran Mark we could take him out, but it didn’t happen that way,” Atchison said. “Today we won the battle, but not the war. I’m so happy for Mark though. He’s been my idol since I started racing, and he is a great and deserving champion.”
“With three or four races left in this season, I was so far out of a championship that I wasn’t even thinking about it,” said Atchison. “I was just trying to win races, then all of a sudden we were back in contention.”
With new faces like Laurie Cannister and Dale Brand making strong performances at the end of the season, 2008 looks promising for Alcohol Funny Car.
“It sounds crazy, but the tougher the competition is out here, it actually becomes a little easier to win a championship,” said the London, Ontario native. “When Mark Thomas is the only guy out here to beat and we trade off wins, it makes it hard to win a title. When these other cars step up, they have the ability to take the quick cars out.”
“We only lost this deal by 15 points, and I know where we did it,” said Atchison. “I was a little late at Epping and gave Mark a win, but it motivated me tonight and I got the holeshot win on him. If I got one mulligan I would take that loss back, but what can you do?"
TORCO’S COMPETITIONPLUS.COM PRO STOCK
PATRICK CLINCHES CHAMPIONSHIP, FALLS IN FINALS – By 50 points, Robert Patrick became the Torco’s Competitionplus.com Pro Stock Champion for 2007. When Pete Berner red-lit in the first round and Patrick took Frank Gugliotta out in the second round, it was all over.
“I’m not going to make any bones about it, I wanted to win that final round,” Patrick said. “When I dropped the clutch I thought I was quicker than I was, but I couldn’t be happier for Jeff. I’m happy for my team as well, and we made a great run in the finals.”
“It was a big relief to finally put this championship away in the second round,” said Patrick. “I’ve led these points before all the way to the final race and lost it. Sealing it up against the guy that had a chance to get around me made it that much better.”
DOBBINS CLAIMS SECOND IRON MAN OF ’07 – Jeff Dobbins earned his second event win of 2007 and the first in his home state when he tattooed newly crowned World Champ Robert Patrick to the tree and held him off for a 6.31 to 6.30 holeshot win.
“We’ve had a couple pro finals here, but this is the first one that we have won,” Dobbins said. “When all your friends and family are here, it’s just hard to get the job done. This is a big win.”
Dobbins not only got the job done, he did it against a man that has been red-hot lately – except in final rounds. This was Patrick’s second straight final round loss.
“I told Robert in the staging lanes that I wanted to give the newly crowned World Champ his first whipping,” said Dobbins. “And that’s what we did.”
MONSTER MATCHUP – Pete Berner has been the class of field lately in Pro Stock, and he certainly needs to keep that pace up for today’s first round of eliminations. As fate would have it, Berner has to face the man whose world record he matched last night: two-time champion Brian Gahm.
“I bet he’s hating that,” Gahm said. “I like all these guys, but I hate them when we get out on the track. Pete could lose the championship if I beat him, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’m going out to win this race myself.”
When the time came for the match-up, Gahm took his time as he went to stage and it may have had its effect on Berner. Berner red-lit and gave away his chance at the world title, watching Gahm shake the tires then cruise to a victory.
“That right lane is pretty bad,” Gahm said. “We had way too much gear in the car. We’ve got Dobbins next round and he is running pretty well, but Berner was too.”
Berner, the consummate professional, was still upbeat after the first round loss. “You can’t be disappointed in the season we had,” said Berner. “My crew works so hard and the driver let them down right there, but we aren’t going to hang our heads. We’re going to get our new car and go right to testing.”
Meanwhile, Patrick went on to defeat Frank Gugliotta in the second round, ending “The Flying Meatball’s” hopes and clinching the championship all in one.
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – GREAT WEATHER, FATHER-SON DOMINANCE AND A PRO STOCK BATTLE DOWN OT THE WIRE
EXCELLENT CONDITIONS – Warm, muggy weather conditions last night gave way overnight to crisp, dry air for Saturday’s qualifying sessions. The improved density altitude was evident when numerous Pro Stockers, led by Pete Berner at 6.317, ran quicker in the day session today than they did last night.
Following Pro Stock, Pro Modified put on a show in Saturday’s first session as well. Scott Cannon went low for the round and moved to the top spot with a 6.076, followed closely by Shannon Jenkins’ 6.077. The Iceman’s pass was the quickest pass in IHRA competition by a nitrous car to the eighth-mile (3.989 at 188.46 MPH) and quarter-mile.
At the end of Saturday’s final qualifying session, track records had been broken in Torco’s Competitionplus.com Pro Stock, Alcohol Funny Car, and Torco’s Competitionplus.com Pro Modified.
TOP FUEL
OH YEAH, HIS DAD IS GOOD TOO – On a night when his son ran a track record to qualify No. 1 and clinch his first Pro Modified world championship, Scotty Cannon put on a show himself when he edged Bruce Litton to grab his own pole position in Top Fuel. It marked the first time a father and son duo qualified No.1 at the same race in professional categories, and Scotty’s first career pole in Knoll Gas Top Fuel competition.
Unfortunately for Cannon, the fact that both Bruce Litton and T.J. Zizzo qualified for the event eliminated him from any hopes of a championship. If both Litton and Zizzo make it out of the first round, the two will meet in the semifinals with the championship being decided by the outcome of that race.
MCMILLEN COMING ON STRONG – Terry McMillen made a career-best run in the first qualifying session Saturday, and the 4.617, 314.83 mph clocking remained good enough for third when all was said and done Saturday night.
After DNQs at the last two events in Budds Creek and Milan, the Torco team seems to be on the rebound. McMillen has one career IHRA Top Fuel victory to his credit in his debut season, the win coming at the Rocky Mountain Nationals earlier in the year.
KNOLL GAS NITRO FUNNY CAR
GILBY HANGS ON – Bob Gilbertson dodged a few stray bullets from the likes of Terry Haddock and Jeff Diehl to hold on for the No. 1 qualifying position in Knoll Gas Nitro Funny Car.
His mission to grab a long overdue win will have to go through perennial champion Dale Creasy Jr. in the first round.
KELLEY’S EBAY EXPERIMENT – Piedmont, SC’s Andy Kelley decided to get a little creative in his mission to secure sponsorship for the last race of 2007 and possibly beyond. While exploring all the standard avenues, Kelley and his marketing team listed a one-race sponsorship on eBay that would allow the high bidder primary signage on Kelley’s Firebird for this weekend’s World Finals. Unfortunately, no one reached the auction’s reserve price or opted for the $10,000 “buy it now” option before the auction ended.
“We had a good bit of response from it, but to be honest, I think a lot of people thought it was a joke,” said Kelley. “This is the real deal though. We are out here running well and we are fourth in the points. We’re going for this thing.”
Though their eBay venture didn’t quite work out as planned, the Kelley team admitted they aren’t scared to “experiment in public” and plan to try it again.
“There’s definitely some potential that came out of it,” Kelley said. “We’re on eBay buying and selling all the time, and we’re going to give it another try. We had a couple different people interested, so hopefully something will come of it.”
“The IHRA Nitro Jam series offers access to a very specific and desirable demographic, and it’s a very reasonable way for a company to promote its products or services,” added Kelley Motorsports Marketing Consultant Paul Constantine. “Andy had this idea a couple of weeks ago and after debating the pros and cons we decided to run with it.”
“This is a good program over here at IHRA,” said Kelley. “Evan Knoll is putting up great money for this deal, and it’s the best bang for the buck in my opinion. These spectators can get hands-on over here. They can come up and touch my car if they want to. We want to be out here full time next year, but we can’t if we don’t secure some backing.”
“We’ll be at the first race for sure, but we don’t know beyond that right now,” said Kelley.
THREE FOR SMITH – Mike Smith is making his third appearance in Knoll Gas Nitro Funny Car this season, but with funding discussions with NTB looking good for next season, he hopes to make the full IHRA circuit.
“Our deal with NTB was only for three races this year, but we hope to have a deal wrapped with them by sometime next week,” said Smith. “I’m heavily involved in dog shows with my significant other and the driving school with my dad, but I am still looking forward to running a full schedule next season.”
Smith isn’t trying to set the world on fire this weekend at the Rock, but hopes to learn something about the consistency of his car.
“We’re just trying to figure out how to make this thing go 5.0’s, then 4.90’s, and then 4.80’s if necessary,” Smith said. “We have the ability to run those numbers, but we just have to take it one step at a time. You get such a big swing at this track. At night, the track gets really good but during the day it is marginal at best You almost have to have two cars, one that’s a real hot rod and one that just gets down the track. We’re still working on that nighttime setup, and we are just going to let it come to us during the first session today.”
Smith had a decent run going in the second round of qualifying, but something gave way on the top end and the car flashed a small fire out of the left side. The damage was enough to keep Smith out of the final round of qualifying and out of the qualified field for Sunday.
DIEHL RUNS CAREER BEST – Jeff Diehl ran a career best 4.986 at 304.39 in Saturday’s night session to crack the tough Knoll Gas Nitro Funny Car field. Starting in the 4th position, he will go up against No. 8 qualifier Todd Simpson in the first round of eliminations.
PRO MODIFIED
CANNON GOES TO No. 1, CLINCHES CHAMPIONSHIP – Scott Cannon Jr. capped off a brilliant season in Torco’s Competitionplus.com Pro Modified by clinching his first career world championship Saturday night.
With his closest opponent, Mike Janis, in the opposite lane Cannon fired a moonshot 5.969 at 239.27 MPH to claim both ends of the Rockingham track record. Cannon needed only to qualify for the event to clinch the championship.
Word floating through the pits after Cannon’s run was that in order to secure his championship, Cannon will not race in Sunday’s eliminations. Cannon denounced the rumor Saturday night in a phone call.
The potential of the rumor did make sense because Cannon doesn’t need to earn any more points, but if he were to oil the track down first round and lose points, it would open that small sliver of a chance for Janis to claim yet another IHRA Pro Modified championship.
We were unable to catch up with Cannon after the run to confirm this, but we will have more on this and Cannon’s championship tomorrow.
ICEMAN IN THE 6.0 RANGE AGAIN – Shannon “The Iceman” Jenkins laid down arguably the most impressive pass of round one when his Speedtech GTO covered the quarter-mile in 6.077 seconds at 231.16 MPH.
“That was a good hit,” said the always even-keel veteran. “It smoked the tires like a fuel car down low but it was gone after that.”
Jenkins wasn’t lying. His so-so 1.026 60-ft time turned into a blistering 3.986 at 188+ mph by the time it reached the eighth-mile.
In the final qualifying session, Jenkins shook the tires but Jim Halsey joined him in the 6.0 club with a 6.081 blast.
IF IT MAKES IT INTO SECOND… – Jenkins’ run was bettered only by Scott Cannon, Jr., and only by .001. With all that was on the line, Scotty Cannon’s reaction on the starting line was that of someone that had just won the world championship. A quick look at the points scenario shows that may actually be true.
“That thing was on kill,” said the elder Cannon. “I know we killed the motor, but we had to get in. I told Jr. if it made it to second gear to hit the lean-out.”
HAMSTRA’S RIDE ON THE MARKET – Jason Hamtra’s G-Force-built ’63 split window Corvette is for sale. The World’s Fastest Lencodrive has seen the winner’s circle once this year, and qualified for the tough Rockingham field in 15th place with a 6.162 at 229.20 MPH. Hamstra and team look to take delivery of a new Vanishing Point Camaro soon.
ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR
LAURIE LIGHTS ‘EM UP FOR No.1 – Laurie Cannister, fresh off a win in Budds Creek, ran a personal best and track-record 5.669 elapsed time to go to the top of the pack in Alcohol Funny Car.
“That was my personal best, and I didn’t even realize it was a track-record!” said an enthusiastic Cannister. “This is awesome.”
“We came out at Budds Creek for the first time since San Antonio, and everything just seems to be clicking,” Cannister said. “We’re just trying to make smart decisions and my husband has been dead-on with the tuning calls. It’s really a storybook thing.”
Cannister has only had backing for a limited schedule this season, but looks to leave her mark in 2008 when she runs the full circuit.
“After we won the President’s Cup Nationals, my sponsor told me to get ready to run the whole schedule next year,” she said.
Cannister has a tough match-up in the first round of Sunday’s eliminations. She will go up against title-contender Rob Atchison, who fell all the way to 5th place in qualifying after holding the provisional pole last night. If Cannister defeats Atchison, his championship chase is over.
“We’re going out to run our own race and race the track, and whatever happens, happens,” said Cannister. “Rob is a great guy and he’s truly happy for us. He’s a tough guy to beat. I get along with everyone out here and don’t really like to play that ‘spoiler’ role, but we are both going to put on our helmets and go out there to race. There are no ‘gimmes’ in this deal.”
MARK’S STATE OF MIND – In last night’s qualifying session, Rob Atchison went to the top spot, and did so with Mark Thomas looking on in the other lane. Thomas was only able to muster a 5.954 to Atchison’s 5.823. The two are engaged in a tight battle for the championship, but Thomas insisted that having to watch his opponent go to No.1 didn’t affect his state of mind at all.
“It really wasn’t a big deal. We had several things go wrong last night,” said the 6-time champ. “We went out a little conservative not knowing what the racetrack would hold. Everything was pretty much as planned, and we are going to go out and run a little quicker today and a little quicker tonight.”
Beyond qualifying, Thomas is gunning for an unprecedented 7th championship, something that has never been done in the IHRA pro ranks.
“That sure would be special, but they all are special,” said Thomas. “Just to be out here doing this is great. Having excellent competition makes it cool, too. Winning that 7th championship would be awesome, but I’m not letting it beat me up. Our mission is to win this race and everything else will fall into place.”
“I’m one of the most excitable guys out here when it comes to racing, but I’m taking it in stride,” Thomas said. “Every race, every round win is special to me because I know what it takes to get here. It’s the last hurrah of the season so we are going to try to go out with a win.”
As any good racer does, Thomas has plans to search for more performance over the winter.
“We plan on having the first Impala SS body for next season,” Thomas continued. “We don’t have any major plans, but every little bit you can pick up is crucial. When Dale Brand came out at the last few races and ran incredible numbers, it really got our attention. He showed us that we can run faster, and we need to. We’re not going to stray too far from what we’ve got right now though. We ran the fastest speed ever for a roots car at 249.75 so we know we have plenty of horsepower, it’s just time to redefine how we get it to the ground.”
PRO STOCK
THE BERNER/PATRICK BATTLE CONTINUES – Last night, Robert Patrick went low for session while Pete Berner nabbed the Quarter-Max Last Man Standing award and bonus points. Tonight, the roles were reversed: Berner secured the number one spot while Patrick was Last Man Standing. Berner red-lit away his chances at the award.
This sets up a dream scenario for Pro Stock fans tomorrow. By qualifying 1-2, Berner and Patrick can potentially meet in the final round with all the marbles on the line. The gamesmanship between the two started early Saturday when neither driver was particularly quick to stage during their match-up in qualifying. The tension is building in this rivalry, and it could all come to a head tomorrow.
RULE CHANGE? – Word floating through the Pro Stock pits is that 25 lbs. will be added to the minimum weight requirements for 2008. We also heard it may be only 15 lbs., but nothing could be confirmed. IHRA Director of Competition Mike Baker had no comment on the matter.
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – EIGHTH MILE RACING COMING, LITTON MAKES UP GROUND, THE PRO STOCK BATTLEGROUND
EIGHTH-MILE NATIONALS A REALITY – The biggest buzz throughout the pits before Friday’s first qualifying session was the announcement of the 2008 Knoll Gas Nitro Jam schedule. The big news coming out of that schedule was that the Amalie Oil Texas Nationals will be contested as an eighth-mile event in 2008, and in 2009 the tour’s first stop at Pittsburgh Raceway Park will be eighth-mile as well.
“Last season we really learned something in San Antonio,” IHRA president Aaron Polburn said. “While the quarter-mile has been the standard for drag racing for a long time, we learned an eighth-mile national event is a viable, exciting format. The buzz and excitement the Amalie Oil Texas Nationals generated caused us to take a good, hard look at this format. We’re very excited to grow this race and build our eighth-mile national event slate in the future.”
Reaction was mixed among the drivers. Some favored it while some opposed it, but most were pleased that IHRA announced the change early, giving teams lots of time to prepare.
“Changing to eighth-mile mid-race is no good,” said Rob Atchison. “I’m glad they decided to go ahead and announce it. I prefer quarter-mile racing, but I understand their reasoning.”
“It’s OK,” said Jack Wyatt. “I don’t want to run all eighth-mile all the time though. Everybody made the assumption that we would save parts and money, but to be honest, when we run eighth-mile we just shorten the fuse up. We’re gonna make sure the thing is wicked up and worn out at the eighth-mile if we know that going in.”
While Pro Stock, Pro Modified, and Alcohol Funny Cars seem to be relatively safe going the full 1320, recent events have shown that there is a significant safety risk for the fuel cars.
“The last 300 feet is where we are having problems,” Wyatt said. “I feel that these cars are pretty safe though. It’s one of those things that they’re working on, and they will make the cars better, it just takes time. There is no such thing as cost when it comes to safety, so when they figure out what needs to be done, it’s definitely something we will look into.”
KNOLL GAS TOP FUEL
LITTON CLOSES THE GAP SLIGHTLY – Bruce Litton led a tire-smoking and mechanical
problem-plagued Top Fuel session with a 4.736, 251.44 MPH effort.
Litton also was the Last Man Standing, allowing him to gain five crucial points on points leader T.J. ZIzzo, who had mechanical problems and was forced to lift.
“Whoever wins this championship is definitely going to be deserving of it,” Litton said. “The motor went away early, but fortunately we had enough momentum to carry to the finish line and get the No. 1 spot and the Last Man Standing.”
ZIZZO’S CHAMPIONSHIP QUEST – At the end of an up and down season, T.J. Zizzo has found himself in a position he doesn’t mind - the Knoll Gas Top Fuel points lead.
“This is absolutely the
place I want to be,” said Zizzo. “It would have been nice to come into this
last race with a more comfortable lead, but here we are and it’s all going to
come down to who has the better car and who has the better luck this weekend.”
Zizzo is referring to veteran driver Bruce Litton, who he leads by 26 points. After years of chasing Clay Millican for the championship but always falling short, Litton seems to have found another young gun coming between him and the IHRA title.
“Bruce is a spectacular guy, and I have learned a lot from him this season,” Zizzo said. “Part of me feels for him after he has been chasing this IHRA deal for so many years and I come in with the points lead in my first season.”
Zizzo has had a great season on the track, but off the track, funding issues have affected the team all season. After starting the season with backing from Race News Magazine, the deal fell through and Zizzo’s father was forced to reach into his own pocket to keep the operation going. A partial deal from Peak Antifreeze has kept the team afloat, but their search for full-time backing continues.
“As of right now, this could be our last race ever,” Zizzo admitted. “We have nothing right now, but we are working on negotiations with Peak for next season. They don’t know what they want to do next year yet, and neither do we. This may just be the last race of the season, but it could be the last race of my career.”
“As Clay Millican would say, we’ve just got to enjoy it and go out here and have some fun.”
KNOLL GAS NITRO FUNNY CAR
GILBERTSON GRABS PROVISIONAL POLE – Bob Gilbertson ran a 4.927 at 302.14 MPH under the
lights to narrowly edge out Cory Lee for the provisional top spot in Knoll Gas
Nitro Funny Car. Gilbertson has had a quick car for most of the season, but
hasn’t been able to put it all together for a win since Epping in 2006.
“We do a lot of experimental work over here that nobody even knows about,” said Gilbertson, who is based in nearby Charlotte, NC. “It hasn’t been overwhelmingly successful, but we think we may have stumbled onto something recently that will help us out.”
“We’ve been No.1, had track records, and all that, but who cares?” Gilbertson said. “We haven’t won in a long time. It’s very difficult to have a car that will run 4.70s on the other side and come over here and try to run a bunch of 4.99s and win a race. We are having a hard time backing the thing down enough. It’s mindset as well as parts, really. We need a separate car for each side, then we would kick butt over here.”
“We’re trying a lot of different stuff for next year, but it’s nice to come out and run well on the first shot.”
NO PRESSURE
– With all the talk about the different points battles that will be decided
this weekend, one thing that has been somewhat lost in the shuffle is Dale
Creasy Jr.’s second consecutive Knoll Gas Nitro Funny Car championship. Jack
Wyatt is in second place, but was mathematically out of the race for the
championship
“The pressure is off as far as the championship, but we still want to win the race,” said the driver of the Creasy Family’s Torco Monte Carlo. “We are trying some things for next year though. Nothing drastic, and we are still going to make sure the car goes down the racetrack. We’re having fun right now most of all.”
After two straight championships, Creasy is still hungry for more of what the IHRA has to offer.
“The deal over here looks really good for next year, so we’re going to back out here trying win another one,” said Creasy. “We’ll run one or two NHRA races just depending on how things are looking financially and demographically, but we are definitely focusing on what’s going on over here at IHRA. If you don’t run all the NHRA for points, you are just over there seeing how fast you can run against those guys.”
Wyatt, the winner of the spring race here at the Rock, is still excited about the end of the season despite the fact that it will end with a bridesmaid finish behind Creasy for the second year in a row.
“We’ve finally got this thing coming around,” Wyatt said. “We’ve got it to where it’s not hurting itself. It’s been hurting the front two cylinders all year, but that’s fixed and now we just have to concentrate on not smoking the tires like we did in the finals at Budds Creek.”
Wyatt is hopeful his on-track performance this season will translate into more secure funding for 2008. “The same people that have helped us this year will be back, and hopefully we can get a good start to next season. We plan on running the full IHRA schedule regardless of what happens, but it sure would be great to have a little more backing. There are a lot of motorsports in this country that are fighting for the same dollar, and that’s where we seem to run into problems. We are actually leaving from here to go work on a deal that has been in process for four years, so we will see how that goes.”
PRO MODIFIED
KING IS FRIDAY NIGHT’S KING – We interrupt the Mike Janis vs. Scott Cannon
points battle to bring you this: Chip King has been running extremely well
lately.
That continued Friday night when the Semora, NC-based driver piloted his ’69 Dodge Daytona to the No.1 spot and Last Man Standing status with a 6.081, 230.06 MPH blast. This comes on the heels of his No. 2 qualifying effort in Budds Creek, and solid performances at recent ADRL events as well.
“We’ve had a lot of power all year, but we’ve struggled with chassis setups and getting it to the ground,” King said. “We’ve made some changes to the chassis, and as we’ve made those improvements we’ve really been able to apply the power we are making.”
“We’re excited to be running well over here, and we plan on running the full IHRA circuit next season, especially with the new purse for the Torco Pro Modified Shootout,” added King. “We’re going to do a little ADRL and NHRA, but IHRA will definitely be our focus.”
If King is able to hold on to the No.1 position, it would mark his first time doing so in over 6 years.
“We were really close in Budds Creek a couple weeks ago,” King said. “Since then, we had some chassis issues at Richmond and Alan Pittman did a lot of work to get us fixed up. Tonight was the first run since we got everything put back together. He did a good job and we must have done a good job getting everything back to where it needed to be.”
“The car is really working well. We hate that it’s the end of the year, but we hope to keep marching forward and win one of these things.”
ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR
ATCHISON ON THE ATTACK – 3-time Alcohol Funny Car champ Rob Atchison’s slow
start to the season hasn’t kept him from making a hard charge at a fourth
championship, trailing Mark Thomas by only 37 points coming into the World
Finals.
“We’re close, we just need to have one more good race,” said the London, Ontario native. “The racers out there will understand what I mean when I say I need to run Mark early. We’re only two rounds behind him, and it’s in my control. I know I have the car that can beat Mark, I just have to get to him early enough. There are other racers out there that can take him out, but I would rather have it all in my hands.”
Many wrote Atchison off after he struggled in the first half of the season, but he remained confident the Erickson team would be able to turn it around.
“You can never test enough,” Atchison said. “I live in a climate that doesn’t allow for a lot of testing without a huge financial commitment. When we do test, it’s at a national event and you’re not really testing, you’re racing. So you just have to get it sorted out over the course of a season. Consistency wins races, and that’s where we were lacking. Hopefully we’ve found it, though.”
“We had problems with parts
failing on top of all of that, so we just really got behind the 8-ball,” Atchison continued.
“You’ve got to have all your cards in place to do this and do it right. It just
took us a little while to get to that point.”
“I’m very comfortable with what we have to work with this weekend,” Atchison said.
If Friday night’s first qualifying pass is any indication, he has every right to feel comfortable. Atchison laid down low elapsed time of the session with a 5.823 lap, and scored the Last Man Standing bonus points on top of that. Sweetening the pot was the fact that he did it while paired up against Thomas.
Perhaps Atchison was getting some early practice at that ‘controlling your own destiny’ thing.
PRO STOCK
PATRICK GOES TO THE TOP, BUT… - Robert Patrick got a nice start on his mission of
driving back around Pete Berner for the Torco’s Competitionplus.com Pro Stock
championship Friday night. Patrick went low for the round with a 6.354 elapsed
time at 213.91 MPH.
“This is a testament to my team and engine builder Bob Ingles,” Patrick said. “We came in here with the objective of being the quickest car in every session and every round. This is a great starting point and I feel the track has more to offer tomorrow. We’ll hop it up even more tomorrow and see what we can get.”
Despite Patrick’s provisional pole position, Berner actually widened his lead over Patrick by 5 points when he beat Patrick to the stripe on his 6.372 pass to claim the Quarter-Max Last Man Standing award.
BERNER LOOKING TO DOUBLE UP – Pete Berner is looking to double up in more ways
than one this weekend. Coming off a huge win at the President’s Cup Nationals
in Budds Creek, Berner is seeking a second consecutive event win, but more importantly,
a second consecutive championship.
“I’ve got a great group of guys here,” said Berner. “They work their hearts out to make this thing run the way it does. Whatever happens happens, but I would be tickled to death to win this second championship. If Robert Patrick goes out and does a better job than I do this weekend, so be it. All I’m going to do is just go one round at a time and make sure I do the best I can for my crew, because they deserve to win it more than I do.”
Patrick looked as if he could do no wrong through the first few races of the 2007, but Berner’s consistency and late-season push culminated last weekend as he leap-frogged Patrick for the Torco’s Competitionplus.com Pro Stock points lead.
“We’ve been testing a lot lately,” said Berner. “And I’ve been doing a better with my driving. My focus is a lot better and I feel less distracted. You can’t control what everyone else does, but you have all the control over you own deal. Patrick and Frank Gugliotta really have their acts together, but I have the best group of guys with me in the 20 years that I have been racing.”
As well as Berner’s Rick Jones-built GTO has been running, he actually has plans to debut a brand new car next season.
“We’re slated to get the first Pontiac G6 GXP over here on the IHRA side,” said the Crete, Ill business owner. “Rick Jones is building it, but they actually haven’t released the body yet. They’re making us wait until the end of the season, but from what I hear, it’s pretty slick. It’s going to be hard to beat this piece we have now though. This thing has been magic since the first time I dropped the clutch on it, so we’ll see.”
Berner wound up right behind Patrick in the pecking order after Friday night’s qualifying session. His 6.372 was good for second place.
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - RAINING TO START WITH
According to the schedule, racing should be well underway now. However, once again the IHRA tour has succeeded in breaking a long drought and the only things moving on the track are the tractors and blowers.
Track drying has been under way for about an hour and will take at least another hour, more likely two.
Once the track is dry, Sportsman qualifying will kick off the weekend, starting with Hot Rod and ending with the first time trial session for the eight Summit Super Series finalists in the Box and No Box categories. If time permits, they will all get two sessions today.
The Professional warriors are schedule to kick off their qualifying at 6 p.m. and there should be a couple of Nostalgia Funny Cars somewhere during the evening's activities.
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